This is a review of the game “Spiral Knights.” It is a free online massively multiplayer game that has Co-op and PvP gameplay. “Spiral Knights” is about a group of refugees whose ship was damaged in an accident. They are forced to evacuate to a nearby planet called Cradle. You start off as one of many knights who have just dropped down in an escape pod. After a bit of practice fighting, you venture on to the city of Haven. There you enter the Arcade and The Clockworks where you go through many dungeon levels, collecting crowns and heat.

Heat is used to level up your items to make them stronger. You start at 1 and go to 10. Crowns are used to purchase items, or to buy recipes and craft your own items. Crowns are one of the two currencies used in the game. The other is energy. Energy is used to power your suit and to go down the dungeon elevators, and it is also used in crafting. There are two types of energy – mist which is free and recharges over time, and cannot be bought or sold. Crystal energy can only be bought and sold, using real money or in-game crowns. You can get by without using any real money, though.

There are many different types of monsters and creatures in the dungeons that you will face. The factions are: beast, fiend, undead, construct, gremlin, and slime. All of these different factions have more than one type of monster. To fight these monsters, you have three different types of weapons (sword, handgun, and bomb) and four different types of weapon damage (normal, piercing, elemental, shadow). Different monster factions are either immune or more vulnerable to certain types of damage. For example, undead are resistant to shadow but weak to elemental. Also, you may wear three pieces of armor (suit, helmet, and shield) and up to two trinkets (items that grant additional protection or enhancement) at a time.

Currently, there are also four monster bosses. The monsters and bosses are in the dungeon tiers: Tier 1 is easy, Tier 2 is moderate, and Tier 3 is hard. As you progress through the game and gain better equipment, you will venture farther down into the dungeon tiers. The very bottom is the core, which is the base of the world. Currently it is unknown what is in the core, but hopefully the game developers will make it soon. In the meantime, the object of the game is just to fight, collect treasure, and have fun.

After its official launch in Spring 2011, “Spiral Knights” was nominated for the 2011 Game Developers Choice Online Awards in four categories: Best Visual Online Arts, Best Online Game Design, Best Audio for an Online Game, and Best New Online Game. The game’s graphic style would be best described as cartoony. The music in the game is well done and very catchy. My overall opinion of this game is, it’s well worth playing.